1] 3ii 





Hollinger Corp. 
pH8.5 




ADDRESS DELD7ERED 
by 

HOMER S. CUMMINGS 

of 
STAMFORD, CONNECTICUT 



JUNE 6, 1917 



i€ 



3>>& 



STENOGRAPHIC REPORT OF AN ADDRESS 

DELIVERED BY 

HOMER S. CUMMINGS 

Or Stamford^ Connecticut 

Member of the Connecticut State Council of Defense at a 

Meeting of that body held at Hartford 

June 6th, 1917. 



Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: 

I am very regretful that I did not have sufficient notice 
of this meeting, and what was expected of me, to formulate 
in my mind suggestions worthy of the occasion. 

It is needless to say that I am proud to be associated 
with an organization composed of such intelligent and 
patriotic citizens. It is needless to say that the crisis which 
confronts our country is so great that we have not yet fully 
realized its scope, and it is also needless to say that I am 
glad to do anything in my power in behalf of our country, 
and for the preservation of the form of liberty, which is 
characteristic of the life of this continent. We are very slow 
to anger, we are very reluctant to engage in great contests of 
arms, but I hope we are willing, if need be, to defend with 
our lives the principles that our forefathers have made 
sacred (Applause). We have a record running back for 
more than two thousand years into the earliest times when 
men began to aspire to have rights as men ; and we have seen 
the slow unfolding of that story of freedom through all the 



pages of our history. And there are milestones on this way 
of progress — great monuments of achievement. 

The Great Charter, the Petition of Rights, the Bill of 
Rights, the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution 
of the United States and a multitude of inspiring docu- 
ments of liberty, together with the struggles that brought 
them forth, have made that history illustrious and delivered 
into our hands a noble heritage. 

We have seen slowly forming through all these ages, 
through blood and toil and service, a kind of government 
which has flowered into its completest efficiency on this con- 
tinent; and, of late years, before this terrible war came, we 
began to feel that that kind of government was destined to 
be embraced by all peoples and to prove a blessing to all 
mankind. We knew that the nations of South America had 
already based their forms of government upon the Consti- 
tution of the United States, and we found almost everywhere 
this moving impulse toward popular government. Some- 
times it was abortive; sometimes it failed; and sometimes it 
lapsed into a condition worse than that which preceded it — 
but still there was that impulse. We saw its effect in China 
and in Persia. It was active in Finland, and successful in 
Cuba. We have seen developments into a large form of 
democracy in Italy and Great Britain; and of late Russia 
has thrown off its antiquated form of government and is 
attempting to set up a government based on some sort of 
freedom and liberty and humanity and equality. (Applause.) 
Let us not forget that the process of trying to upset auto- 
cratic government is probably the most laborious process 
which humanity has ever undertaken. Robert Burns said, 
"Liberty's a glorious feast" — but it is likewise an intoxicat- 
ing beverage, and sometimes it mounts to the brain. We 
have an illustration of this now in Europe. 

Elihu Root, I think it was, said that popular govern- 
ment is organized self-control. That is the kind of govern- 



ment that was founded here ; that is the kind of government 
that gives each man his fairest and largest opportunity ; and 
that is fundamentally the thing in which Americans believe. 
(Applause.) 

I mention these things because they are ideals common 
to us all, because we thought they would go on and on to a 
higher culmination and a more complete triumph throughout 
the world. But they have had their setback. Men, from 
time to time, complained of the failures of popular govern- 
ment. They pointed to the case of Germany and called 
attention to the efficiency which is said to be a characteristic 
of that Empire. I have sometimes thought we could make 
the hundred million people of America the most efficient in 
the world if we closed the doors of Congress, put a muzzle 
on the press and turned the government over to one strong 
man. It is quite possible that we would then have the most 
efficient government in the world, but it would be an intoler- 
able tyranny and it would bear within itself the germs of 
ultimate destruction. And so I say, despite all the failures 
of popular government, despite all the difficulties we are 
now confronting, there is only one kind of a flag to which I 
care to give my allegiance, only one kind of flag which stirs 
my blood, and that is the flag that floats over a free people 
voluntarily participating in their own governmnet. (Ap- 
plause. ) 

Now all this I mention because these things today seem 
to be at hazard; because along with this great democratic 
development there has been growing up in the center of 
Europe a contrary policy and one which constitutes a rever- 
sion to feudalistic forms. I have been thinking lately of Bis- 
marck and the potent influence he exerted upon the Teutonic 
peoples. 

Bismarck breathed the breath of life into the dying doc- 
trine of the divine right of kings; and built up a government 
of caste supported by military system, the purpose of which 



we did not fully understand, the scope of which we are only 
beginning to realize, and the triumph of which has been so 
near that those of us who are familiar with the perils of the 
past and the perils which still confront us, can scarcely con- 
tain ourselves because of the anxiety which we feel for our 
country and for our .institutions. 

Now, I think I may say this — for you know the ruth- 
less things that that government has been capable of, you 
know to what depths it has brought humanity, you know what 
it has done in Belgium; you know that, while professing 
friendship to us through Ambassador Bernstorf, it was 
secretly plotting to dismember our country and apportion 
it, in part at least, to Mexico and to Japan — the Imperial 
German government has lost somehow its hold upon funda- 
mental morality. Not long ago I was speaking with a dis- 
tinguished diplomat (I will not give you his name), and the 
conversation had to do with the torpedoing of hospital ships 
going on so ruthlessly of late. I learned that there is in 
England, at the present time, a certain representative of 
the Imperial House of Germany. His name perhaps you 
know; if you don't, it is as well not to mention it. When 
Germany began the destruction of hospital ships, Lloyd 
George sent a message to the Kaiser and saying, in substance, 
"We will hold this man hostage against the destruction of 
hospital ships." The message came back: "We are at war; 
do with him as you see fit." And then Lloyd George tele- 
graphed again that on certain of these hospital ships there 
would be German wounded and that if these ships were de- 
stroyed it would mean the destruction of German life. The 
message came back: "We are at war," and the ghastly work 
went on unabated. This war is absolutely and completely 
pitiless. The military caste of Germany is striving to main- 
tain the dynasty and if they can maintain the dynasty they 
will maintain in this world a standing menace to all free 
governments. There are more than a million and a half sol- 
diers in England today who have never gone to the front 
but are being held in reserve. 



It is because, as some authorities aver, there is no means 
of estimating the extent of the collapse of Russia, no telling 
how much pressure may be put on the western line, and it 
may be wiser for England to keep her million and a half men 
for the defense of her own soil than throw them into a los- 
ing conflict. But she will throw them into the conflict if we 
are prepared to render adequate assistance to the other 
democracies of the world. (Applause.) 

I am not an alarmist. I am only trying to have you 
sense the situation which confronts us now. This little meet- 
ing here, presided over so ably by our good friend Bissell, is 
a significant meeting in the life of Connecticut. There is 
work to do — work, work, work — for every one of us. We 
may not all be able to go to the front, but there is work to be 
done at home — Liberty bonds must be sold, the ranks must 
be kept filled, the industry and commerce of Connecticut, 
probably the most important in America, must be kept effec- 
tive, vigorous, active and useful. These are the things that 
we can do and these are the things which put so much tax 
on our funds, our industry, our patriotism, our time; but we 
have got to give this time and we have got to give intelligent 
consideration to the things that our country imperatively 
requires. (Applause.) 

I think the time has come — I pray God the time has come 
— when Kings and Emperors and potentates and Kaisers 
shall no longer be able, with the aid of a military caste, to meet 
in secret to partition the world, to plot against the happi- 
ness of humanity and to determine the destiny of the human 
race. (Applause.) The time has come for the free peoples 
of the world to take counsel together to see how democracy 
shall be saved to humanity. (Applause.) When we go into 
this vast conflict we must remember we go in glorious com- 
pany. 

We rejoice to be with little Belgium, that never in the 
least degree provoked the assault made upon her and proved 



herself heroic beyond all description. When we think of 
Great Britain we think of that 3,000 miles of unprotected 
frontier between us and Canada, which shows how self-gov- 
erning nations can live in peace side by side. We think, 
too, of Italy that gave Columbus to the world and through 
Columbus gave America to the world ; and we think of France 
and what France has meant to humanity, and the costly sacri- 
fices she has placed upon the altar of freedom. (Applause.) 
These are our brothers in the common cause of liberty, and 
when the fight is won, as it will be won, America will have 
its opportunity to participate in laying the foundations of 
international peace, so safe, so broad, so deep, so secure that 
no King or Kaiser will ever vex or disturb them again. 
(Applause.) 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




021 547 768 ft * 



11 ^t, 




w 



0"V 



Hollinger Corp. 
P H8.5 



